Module Directory

In this module, students will learn to reflect critically on the history of childhood. The module examines how childhood has been conceptualised in the past; analyses different ideological models of a 'child'; and considers the diverse lived experiences of children. Throughout the last two hundred years, ‘childhood’ has been the object of intense social concern and debate, as something to be managed, safeguarded, shaped, idealised or demonised, developed, promoted or commercialised as the case may be. Focusing on Britain (in order to make the most of local resources and to contextualise contemporary practice), we will cover some key events in the development of modern social policies towards children, but we will do so in the context of particular debates and arguments about children’s lives and experiences. In this sense, the history of childhood is very much the history of conversations by adults and changing groups of professionals about children. However, throughout the module, we will also explore what life was like for children in the past and how it was shaped by social and cultural shifts. We will explore excerpts from written documents, vignettes from oral history, and material culture to get an understanding of the enormous changes in the diverse experiences, living conditions, and rights of children. This angle on the experience of childhood will be supplemented by a field trip and supported by the first assessment task.

The module supplies an important background context to the themes introduced in year 1 and also links to issues of the ‘representation’ of children explored in ‘Wild Things: Literature, Childhood, Psychoanalysis’ this year.

The aims of this module are:

• To give students a broad historical overview of changing conceptualisations of childhood and the lived experiences of children since the late eighteenth century.


• To examine how understandings of childhood and children's experiences have been shaped by political, economic, social, national, and international contexts.


• To introduce students to the changing relationship between parents, children, and the state


• To give students historical contexts through which to understand the development of modern educational and social policy around children.


• To develop students’ skills in analysing the material culture of childhood


• To use the historical understanding as a springboard for critical reflection on, and evaluation of, the shifting meanings of childhood.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of key developments in the history of childhood in Britain since the late eighteenth century.


2. Demonstrate an understanding of changing conceptualisation of childhood and the diverse lived experiences of children.


3. Analyse key debates over the historical construction of childhood.


4. Demonstrate an understanding of the changing relationship between children, parents, and the state.


5. Demonstrate knowledge of formative moments in educational and social policy towards children and the historical context for this.


6. Analyse and interpret material culture and construct a historical argument in written form.

Syllabus:

Introduction: Why the History of Childhood and What is a (Historical) Child?

Innocence and Deviance: Childhood and Parental Affection in History

Children and the Family

Children at Work

Waifs, Strays, and Delinquents: Rescue and Migration

Children of the State: Welfare and Schooling

Field Trip

The Scientific Child: From Child Study to Child Guidance

The Anxious Child: War and Child Psychoanalysis

The Century of Childhood? Children in the Twentieth Century